ftp.ee.pdx.edu/2014.02.ftp.ee.pdx.edu.tar/ftp.ee.pdx.edu/pub/frp/quest/README.txt

Text File | 1995-09-28 | 9KB | 176 lines

Welcome to the Quest Home Page

http://www.engr.wisc.edu/~masters/quest/quest.html

Quest is a face-to-face fantasy role-playing game designed and play-tested
in Madison, WI over the last 12 years or so. Quest is a skill-based system
based on nine different Statistics, and a number of derived Statistics. How
well you learn the various skills in Quest is based on your Statistics. Any
character may take any skill, the only obstacle being how quickly they may
learn the skill. Players choose a primary profession for their Character,
but the only way this is involved with the various skills in the system is
to give you a bonus in learning those skills in your primary profession. You
can have a fighter who can use a broadsword in each hand, heal him- or
herself, and cast damage-causing spells at his/her opponents, or a sneak
thief who can use magic to cloak him- or herself in illusions and disarm
magical and mundane traps.

For example, if you wish to design a ranger, you would acquire skill in
broadsword, longbow, woodscraft, and possibly some clerical skills,
especially spells related to nature or defense. Characters can pick and
choose skills and Spell lists freely, the only hinderance being how well
they learn each skill (which is based on the players statistics).

There are twelve religions in Quest, corresponding to most of the major
religions of the past and present. A cleric may choose one of these 12
religions or choose to be a nondenominational cleric. There are a number of
common cleric lists: Healing, Clerical Divination, General Cleric, Ki,
Piety, and Theology. In addition, clerics who choose a religion have a
number of Spell lists specific to that religion to choose from. And, of
course, clerics may take skills from any of the other major skill classes in
the system.

Fighters have a choice of different weapons and styles, including Martial
Arts, Fencing, active shield use and use of two weapons.

Characters who choose to use magic have a number of different Spell Lists to
choose from, including a working system for creating enchanted items,
potions and scrolls. Magic tends to be much more general purpose and
individualistic than in other systems. A single spell may allow you to do a
number of different things, though area of effect spells (like the AD&D
fireball) are almost nonexistent. Each Spell list has 10 levels of Spells,
each related to the main theme of the list. For example, the Elemental Air
Magics Spell list includes three manipulation spells, a small and large
missile spell (as well as an area of effect spell), a flight spell, two
protection spells, as well as a spell to summon air elementals. Spells in a
list are learned sequentially and the spells become progressively more
powerful. Quest uses a spell point system with each spell costing one point
per level.

Tradesman skills and other skills useful to adventurers, are included in the
Open Skill class category.

Thief lists include Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, and other such
skills.

Last of all are the Technical lists, things like Chemistry, Craftsman,
Ordnance Engineering and Life Sciences. Again, these lists cover the general
areas, leaving flexible for the Game Master and Player alike. A Technical
Appendices is available which details the expenditure of time and money to
create many technical items, up to and including present day items.

The synergistic effects of the various Spells and abilities are, for the
most part, left up to the discretion of the Game Master. This philosophy
will allow the Game Master to control the game more easily, and will allow
the Game Master to tailor the rules to his or her campaign. Some of the
synergistic effects are discussed, because of their importance to game
balance. The Game Master may use these as a guide for making decisions
concerning other synergistic effects, but he or she should not feel
constrained by these discussions.

Potential Players and Game Masters should note that unlike most fantasy role
playing games, reasonably high levels of technology are possible within the
system. Cyberpunk/Shadowrun-type games, a modern day espionage type game and
a space game have all been played using these rules. Quest was designed from
the beginning to run a medieval level campaign, though the flexibility of
the system allows it to be adapted to almost any setting. It is also
possible to eliminate whole sections of skills without too severely damaging
the rules system. An example of deleting bodies of skills would be to
eliminate the fantasy elements and play in some historical time period (for
the purposes of technological development) of the real world. A realistic
representation of the European Middle Ages would require the Game Master to
limit the Technical Disciplines to certain levels and delete Fencing, the
Oriental Disciplines, and all Spell Lists from the game. Be prepared for a
bloody game! There will be no magical healing and the medical services will
be poor. There are good possibilities for tailoring the game to a specific
campaign.

There are five manuals and a character sheet available for Quest. The
manuals are:

Players Handbook, which contains the Spell Lists, Skills, Character
Generation and Equipment lists

Monster Manual, which contains Monster Generation rules and pregenerated
Monsters

Operations Manual, which contains detailed explanations and examples for
refereeing Quest

World Book, which contains hints, suggestions and rules for putting together
a Quest world

Technical Appendices, which contains descriptions, manufacture times and
costs for many common substances and technical items for Quest

How do I get a copy for myself?

The manuals are currently available for downloading in two forms, Postscript
files and Rich Text Format (RTF). (Be sure to read the shareware
information). And of course if you desire plain text, these HTML pages can
be saved as text to your machine. The files have been gzipped and
uncompression programs are available for Macs, Windows, and UNIX machines. A
list of the current sites where these programs may be found is here. The
latest Mac version of gzip can be found here, but Stuffit Expander with
Dropstuff should be able to uncompress it as well.

These HTML pages were generated using the RTFtoHTML program (version 2.7.5
for the MacIntosh) located here. Pages developed from scratch, like this
one, were created using BBedit Lite 3.0 and the BBEdit HTML tools.

In addition to grabbing any of the files below, please grab the README.txt
file, which is essentially this page stripped of all the tags.

The Postscript files are available for downloading by clicking on the
following links: Players's Handbook, Monster Manual, Operations Manual,
World Book, and Technical Appendices. There is also a character sheet
available. The margins for these files are 0.5" and I find it convenient to
print all the manuals 2-up in order to save paper and space.

The RICH TEXT FORMAT (RTF) files are available for downloading by clicking
on the following links: Players's Handbook, Monster Manual, Operations
Manual, World Book, and Technical Appendices. There is also a character
sheet available.

The manuals are written in Word 6.0 and the Postscript files and the RTF
files were generated by either Word for Windows 6.0c or Word for MacIntosh
6.0.1. I've checked the Postscript files as best I can with Ghostscript and
the RTF files import fine into Word (as one would hope). Please let me know
if you have any problems reading the files.

Who wrote Quest?

Quest was primarily written by Mike Greenholdt. In its early days it was
heavily edited by John Woodford. The two longest play testers are Gene
Masters and Todd Richmond, and they are the ones who have inherited the
game, have cleaned up, rewritten, and formatted the manuals for
distribution. Please direct any comments to them electronically at
[e-mail] and/or [e-mail]. Both of these are
Internet addresses.

Shareware Information

We are distributing this game electronically, as shareware ($10). That means
- download it, try it, play it, give it to your friends and only if you
start using it regularly would you pay us the shareware fee. This fee will
go towards future improvements in the game - like purchasing software to
provide a better distribution format (e.g. .pdf files or the like), and to
help pay for some of the costs associated with developing the manuals. Just
be sure to include this message with any copies you distribute or post. We
have chosen to distribute it electronically so that you can make your own
modifications, print out pertinent subsets of the rules, add your own
monsters to the manual, and so on (not to mention trying it for free). We
are always interested in comments or modifications to the system and would
be interested in hearing about them.

Shareware payments of $10 (that's for any or all of the files) should be
sent to

Computer Concepts - FRP Division
8076 Lone Oak Court
Cross Plains, WI 53528-9798

Thank you for your interest, and enjoy playing Quest!

Please read the COPYRIGHT NOTICE.